Palace: Slip in World Press Freedom Index doesn’t mean much

The Philippines’ drop in the World Press Freedom index by two places means little as far as the Palace is concerned, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Thursday.

Roque was responding to the latest annual rankings released by Reporters Without Borders, which attributed the country’s slip to 138th place out of 180 counries to “extremely draconian laws or decrees” that supposedly make government criticism a crime.

“Two positions lower…wala masyadong ibig sabihin ‘yan [that doesn't mean much],” Roque said.

“Bagamat pinakababa ‘yan sa panahon ni President [Rodrigo] Duterte, pinakamataas pa rin ‘yan mula nung panahon ni Presidente Noynoy Aquino,” Roque added.

(While it is the lowest for the Duterte administration, the ranking is the highest since the Aquino administration.)

Roque was referring to the fact that the highest ranking of the Philippines in World Press Freedom Index done by Reporters Without Borders only reached 138th place in year 2016—a year wherein the first six months had Aquino as President before Duterte assumed power in June 30 of the same year.

Likewise, Roque said that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) closure order on Rappler and the closure of ABS-CBN due to lack of franchise have nothing to do with the press freedom situation  in the Philippines.

The Court of Appeals has since ordered the SEC to review its closure order on Rappler, while the House of Representatives packed with the President’s allies denied ABS-CBN’s application for franchise even if government agencies have testified that the network did not violate existing laws.

The President has accused Rappler of violating the Constitution with foreign ownership which has been denied by Rappler. In addition, the President has also said that he will see to it that ABS-CBN will be out by 2020.

“We dispute that the Reporters Without Borders included [in its consideration] the case of Rappler when it was the SEC manned by appointees of President Aquino which ordered its closure while that of ABS-CBN was a case of them needing a franchise,” Roque said.

“We dispute it in the sense that these [instances] should not have led to the decline of our ranking,” he added. — BM, GMA News